Fort Wayne Mayor Reassures Residents After String Of Slayings, Ballard Pretends Indianapolis Isn't On Path For Record Number Of Homicides

Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry and his police chief quickly held a press conference to reassure the city's residence that all was well after five slayings took place in the Summit City over the past week. Henry's police chief points to the fact that of the nine homicides this year, six of those have been solved, including "two very heinous murders”:

“It’s important for the community to rally together,” Henry said. “I’m confident our city will come together and be stronger as a result.”

Henry said he’s already been contacted by the NAACP and the Fort Wayne Urban League asking what they can do to help. The Urban League announced Thursday it will host a series of strategic planning meetings to find ways to stem violence. The first will be 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Urban League, 2135 S. Hanna St.

“We want everyone to be part of this urgent conversation,” Urban League CEO Jonathan Ray said. “Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, business leader, elected official, educator or student, we all need to participate in finding solutions to this violence.”

Meanwhile, Indianapolis is on a path to set a record number of homicides this year with 33 having been committed already in less than three months, six in the past week alone. Remarkably, Ballard, who first ran for mayor as the guy who was going to may public safety job one, declared in his recent state of the city address that the city was undergoing a "renaissance" and is pretending all is well--even still telling residents that crime is down. Apparently, his staff hasn't updated his 3 x 5 notecards recently.